Student finance paid into wrong account. Pls advise!

Basically I realised today, the day my student finance payment was sent, that the bank account information I entered was incorrect. I obviously just made a typo with the last digit wrong (stupid!)

I phoned my bank who said there is nothing they can do, even though student finance told me my bank would be better equipped to help and I have the exact details of the account which is being incorrectly paid.

Anyway, student finance are attempting to track my payment, but this can take over a month. I have no way of paying my next months rent and will probably have to drop out (again)!

Does anyone have any advise / know anything I can do to speed this up? It's just very frustrating as I have the details of the account sitting right here but the bank said they cannot help and I'm having to wait over a month for student finance to trace it.

Reply 1

claireestelle

Original post by fkfkj

I m afraid since they can't reverse a payment there isnt anything else that can be done i m afraid.

Reply 2

fkfkj

Original post by claireestelle

I m afraid since they can't reverse a payment there isnt anything else that can be done i m afraid.

It just seems strange that there's nothing I can do about a payment made in error, even though both myself and student finance have the details of the account it has been paid into? I'm sure it hasn't even been received by the recipient yet and is still processing.

I'm just a bit confused as I've been told by several people that I should let the bank know and they will be able to help, but they've offered no advise what so ever. Surely many payments are made in error every day and returned to whoever actually owns the money?

No one is really telling me what the next step is - even though this tiny error could be the difference in me having to drop out. Feeling very frustrated!

Reply 3

Jackieox

If it's gone into a live account it's going to be a struggle to get it back (They can't just remove money from a live bank account ). If it hasn't you'll have to wait until it bounces back and then they can pay it

Reply 4

claireestelle

Original post by fkfkj

As far as I know, if people do make payments in error it can take a month to fix. All you can do is keep contacting the bank in question and student finance but it's not a quick fix.

Reply 5

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by fkfkj

..........

Have you read this as background

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/send-money-wrong-account

Reply 6

fkfkj

Thanks for all your replies!

Of course it is a mistake on my part (one digit wrong in the account number), but in this case it is obviously not intended for the person who receives it. I'm being told that the bank can help me but for some reason they said there's nothing I can do. Obviously I'm now stressing out as I know I'm still liable to pay this back, and if I don't receive it and there's nothing the bank can do (???), I'm gonna have to drop out of uni as I have no other source of income...

Fingers crossed that the account number and sort code aren't taken by another account and I won't have to go through much hassle! I'm gonna give the bank another call tomorrow.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 7

Saoirse:3

Original post by fkfkj

Talk to the finance office at your uni - they may be able to help you out while this is sorted.

Reply 8

Fahim Ahmed

Original post by fkfkj

Bit late to this thread but I had the same problem, what I did was say that my bank had told me to contact them and I told them that they said that I can take legal action against whoever has my money (which is true) but they never actually told me that, then when the man on the phone asked me to tell him my ba bank details, I read the numbers out one by one and each time I would as if it was correct, this in turn allowed me to see where I went wrong and with a bit of trial an error i was able to figure out what digit I typed in incorrectly, then I went to my bank with the details to see where the money had gone

Reply 9

Katie3187

What happened In the end ? Going through same situation

Reply 10

Welshvisitor

Wait, you need a sort code and account number. Account numbers are generated once a person opens an account wherever they are in the country and are sequential, so the person who opened an account after you and got the next number on the list (you got 123456 and they got 123457) but they opened the account 100 miles away. So the next point of interest is the bank sort code which identifies the branch of your bank only. For a payment to go into the wrong account the account number needs to match with the sort code. So if the account SF paid into receives your money would also have to have the same sort code as you, which not really very likely. Perhaps why the payment is showing as incomplete and it will eventually bounce back to SF. Also, the account holders name need to match too!